Street-Kid
by Wrecksauce
Summary: Ollie is a street kid living in Shiganshina, but after the fall of his home-town his position is no-longer uncommon. Now he works to defend humanity from the Titans, aiding Eren Yeager at the same time...but nothing is ever so clean-cut in this world, is it...


"Hey!" the shout and accompanying footfalls seemed to reverberate around the deserted streets, of Shiganshina,  
"Come back!"...and anyone who happened to be nearby and listening would have heard three sets of shoes thudding along the empty cobbled streets. From the centre of the town it was plain that whatever chase was taking place, it was getting closer, eventually it was so close that it was possible to just hear the heavy panting of two uniformed men. Soon after the panting became audible three figures came exploding around the corner to the market square, the one in front was small and skinny, and had a small bundle under one arm. The two behind were obviously giving chase as they would occasionally make grabs for the shorter figure in front.

For any casual observers the figures were unidentifiable because the low light of the moon profiled the participants of the chase against the lighter wall of the house behind them, it might actually have been mildly intimidating. The runners were not concerned by this, however, at this stage they were concerned with fulfilling their respective goals, the figure in front was obviously trying to escape the arms of the law, while the arms of the law themselves were trying to catch the runner.

The figures were gone from the market square seemingly as fast as they had entered, the runner in front had lead the chase down a small back-alley, leaving the market square quiet once again. The runner took several different turns to attempt to shake their pursuers but to no avail, eventually they were run into a dead-end, allowing the slightly exhausted Garrison members to properly catch up. The three seemed to size each-other up for a moment, the smaller figure who had been leading the chase was hooded, leaving only the hard line that their mouth made visible. The two Garrison members glanced sideways at each-other briefly, nodding, and then they crouched down low, holding their arms out wide and advancing in a way which should have made escape impossible.

The runner clutched their package tightly under their arm, protected it with the opposite, and turned slightly to the side to keep it from the view of their assailants.

"Give it up, Kid" the taller of the two soldiers warned, taking another step forward.

"You've got nowhere left to run" the other added, keeping in a parallel with his comrade.  
His eyes widened a few moments later when the figure's mouth twitched upwards into a smile briefly before jumping to the side of the taller man's lunge and spinning around his fellow's swipe before taking off again in the opposite direction, leaving the two Garrison members completely disoriented.  
The small figure continued to run for a few minutes before taking another turn down an even smaller alley-way and ascending a drainage pipe to the roof of a house.

The figure slipped their hood back to reveal a child's face, grubby from a lack of proper washing, but still unmistakably a child's face. He had sharp green eyes and brown hair that clung slightly to his scalp due to a mix of sweat and grime that had been accumulated over what must have been at least a week, the child wore a ragged pair of trousers that most children and parents would have considered far too short and a wax over-coat that encompassed a hood and several pockets.

The child deposited their bundle on the ground underneath the chimney stack that jutted from the roof of the house, then they emptied their pockets into a small pile next to the bundle, the items included a small orange, a canteen of water, some soap, and a plain wooden comb. Then the child reached into the chimney and pulled out a small sack, tied with some rope, the sack contained several small rings, a bracelet, and a pocket watch.

"Hey guys" the child uttered suddenly, it was a quiet voice, one that was rarely used these days, it contained a lot of pain, a pain that a child of their age should not have. "I got some food" the child huffed something that may have loosely resembled a laugh, "not that you can eat it anymore, but I guess you'd be happy to know your Ollie is eating tonight". The child touched the bracelet for a second or two, holding the metal against his skin, then he did the same with each of the rings, before finally picking up the pocket watch, there was a small inscription on the back that read:

_To our son Ollie, with our undying love.  
Mom and Dad_.

As if on cue, it then began to rain.

* * *

Flash-back several years and a different version of the boy would have been standing before you, without the obvious pain in his voice, and with a cleaner face. His name was Ollie Martinez, son of Raul and Linda Martinez. Some things have not changed so much since then, Ollie remains intelligent, fiercely resilient, and slightly shorter than average for his age. At this point in time Ollie was seven years old, living with his mother and father in their house in Shiganshina, a town on the outside-edge of wall Maria, the house was a humble affair, sporting one floor that made up for living space and cooking space, the house had a small plot of land that could be used for growing root vegetables.

Ollie went to a school in the centre of the town, one that was attended by almost every child that lived within its walls, even then the classes were small, meaning that education was fairly good, a better quality than would be experienced in more populated towns. The younger Ollie had made a reasonable amount of friends there, he wasn't popular by any means, but within his friend group he was outgoing and fun to be around. After school was finished Ollie was usually seen with his friends, running around the town playing games of various natures, sometimes he was in the Garden with his mother, helping to gather vegetables and pull the weeds.

During the evenings he was fed well, washed, and tucked up in the bedroom he shared with his parents by his father, who usually came home later from his post maintaining the walls. He would then sleep soundly until morning, when the routine of getting ready for school, going to school, coming back from school, eating, washing, and then going to bed again would be repeated. This routine was completely and utterly normal for any child in the town, asides from his own personal attributes Ollie was considered an exceptionally normal child with an exceptionally normal life.

Until it was turned upside-down, I guess...

* * *

Present-day me woke with a start, jerking upright underneath the wax coat I was forced to use as a cover for lack of anything better. Seemingly in spite of the cold rain splashing against the tiled roof next to me, I was sweating profusely due to the dreams I had been having, dreams made me sweat, it was odd, but it never really concerned me. To be plainly honest I'm not even sure whether to call them dreams or nightmares anymore, while I longed for the comfort of my old life, the comfort and warmth that my parents had offered and still embodied in my mind, whenever my sleeping memory roamed to that corner of my mind it always landed upon one particular, damning memory, one that I would prefer to bury with my Parents. I much preferred the more pleasant memories of that time, the ones with my father spinning me around above his head while my mother had a small panic attack behind him, I never understood why, I thought my father was the exemplar of safety and comfort.

I sat and squinted up at the cloudy sky, the rain made it difficult to see, it was a hopeless exercise anyway, the clouds covered up the stars, which were my only real solace these days, I had always dreamed of going to them, being free from my tormented past and my troubled present, I always hoped for a more ideal future, one that I could live in comfortably. But that I knew…I knew it was unlikely, while I was only ten years old I liked to think I was surprisingly sober and realistic for my age, I just couldn't sit and listen to fictional stories anymore, they always seemed to ideal, the hero to heroic, needless to say I had lost all of my friends now, I didn't fit in with 'normal' kids.

I decided my restlessness was never going to allow me to sleep, so I stood up, wrapped my coat around my shoulders like a sailor from the old tales, and jumped down from the roof onto the medium-sized wall that separated the house I slept on to the house next to it. Once on the floor I decided to take a walk around, it was getting close to sunrise, but the rain clouds still hung heavy in the air, causing most of the light that the approaching dawn may have offered to be lost trying to breach the dark wall in the sky.

Walking around Shiganshina at night in the rain offered a rare beauty, the lack of light made the raindrops appear spectral as they bounced off the cobbles, walls, roofs, windows and other hard objects, it was almost ere to me. Although, I did find it kind of relaxing. I had grown used to walking around in the dark, it was the only opportunity I ever had to obtain food, what little of it there was, and other necessities with any hope of avoiding the authorities.

I somehow found a stone to kick in front of me as I walked towards the river, it made a satisfying click noise as it rolled along, it made a silent companion as I made my way through the streets. Once at the river I stopped kicking the stone and looked out across the body of water. The light that the low moon could just get out from behind the clouds and onto the face of the river was casting a long white line along its surface, it rippled with the water, and looked a little like white paint running down a jet black wall.

I just…stared at the water for the longest time, so long I lost track of the it, but I had become engrossed in my own head, I loved making up fairy-tales that I could not even believe. A lot of them involved dad, who I had always thought was the strongest man in the world. He would be rescuing mom from various situations of impending doom and then falling in love with her and starting a family, some of these tales involved me too, but most did not, I always thought that it was better to not have me in them, wherever they were…they were a pair now, a team, I was down here, still, hoping they were looking out for me. Eventually I decided to switch my story making expedition to a new topic: life outside the walls.  
What would it be like for humans to expand beyond the walls again? Going back to the places that Titans had over-run in the days of old, re-colonizing lost cities built by our ancestors and finding all the ruins that the ancient humans had left behind?

My Dad had kept books about the outside, written by older, bearded men writing down their knowledge on paper in order to pass that knowledge down to future generations, I had always pictured them with pointy hats. I used to spend hours reading through those books, allowing ideas to spread through my mind about how amazing a life without Titans might be. I liked these thoughts, and often allowed them to branch out unchecked until I fell asleep some days, for me sleep was like an eraser, getting rid of all but the best ideas and allowing more mental images to form. Like vast forests of trees and sprawling cities that went on for miles and miles…they would be so beautiful. Sometimes these thoughts were the only things that stopped me curling up in a ball somewhere and crying, like I used to when someone was mean to me at school when I was young enough for my dad to pick me up without grunting at the excursion.

The water seemed to allow my thoughts to flow, like the river itself, allowing them to reach a natural stopping point, which was the only thing that stopped me going insane, I just had so many of these thoughts. Once my head was back in a calmer order I picked up the stone that I had kicked over from the street and threw it, as hard as I could, it made my arm go a little numb afterwards. That's how hard I threw it. The stone went a satisfying distance, hitting the white line in the black water and causing ripples and droplets as it disturbed the surface, I loved it when that happened, I always was a bit of a nature boy. Water was always my favorite natural substance though, it was something that man could control, something that could be manipulated to make things like fountains, or drinkable substances like ale or spirits. Water was a good material.

That was a good thought to go to sleep on, I thought, so I made my way back to my roof, making sure to avoid any regular hides for Garrison troops, it wasn't that I didn't appreciate what they stood for, but I just thought that some of them were a little too…free spirited, as it were. Once I was on my roof again I curled up underneath my coat and made another attempt at sleep, I would need it if I was ever going to do anything productive tomorrow.

* * *

I failed to gain any more sleep that night, I tried to find some well into the morning, when the clouds cleared and the first wave of residents began to make their way to work, or school, or to the wall if they were soldiers, but sleep was an elusive beast sometimes, and this time it eluded me. The rain was too disturbing for it really, the way it pinged of the tiled roofs and trickled down the back of my shirt if I shifted in just the wrong way probably scared it off. Instead of continuing my vein attempts at capturing it I lent against the chimney and studied the bracelet I had stowed inside it, it was my Moms once, and had been one of the only items I had managed to recover from back then. I couldn't help but smile at the memory of Mom, despite us being a fairly poor family she always managed to keep a smile, and always smelt of roses, the two traits went very well together, I think.

As I finally began to wonder what I was actually going to do with another day alone the bells in the church tower began to blare out across the town, completely scaring off poor sleep. But I knew what that chorus meant…the Recon Corps had returned. Which was worrying, seeing as they only went out a few days ago, _probably another failure_, was the only thing my pessimistic mind could think. I would always think very highly of the Recon Corps, it was full of people prepared to actively do something to try and break free of the walls, as the wings in their crest indicated. I decided to go down and see them march down the main street, it was a good opportunity to see what the tone of the soldiers was, to get a feel for what the mission had been like, how it went.

It was quicker to go on the roof tops, the crowds in the street were always slow moving, the distance to the main street was not great from here anyway, and the gaps between the roofs were not so large, it made for easy traveling, and created a sense of freedom that I could not get enough of. I hoped almost merrily across the roof-tops until the main street came into view…along with the procession of disturbed faces, which was anything but merry. I couldn't help but look on in dismay as soldiers with blank expressions and eyes filled with horror trekked along the street, some of them were supporting others than could not walk properly by themselves, others were simply staring straight ahead, their bodies on auto pilot. I had heard of the stare before, it was common in the Recon Corps, they called it the 'thousand mile stare', they simply weren't looking at anything outside, all they could think of was the horrors that they had experienced.

"It seems that that we pay our taxes to fatten them up for Titan food" my attention became drawn to a conversation below me, "it's such a waste, when will they learn that adventuring outside the walls is a waste of time?" I could feel my fists clench into themselves as I listened to that damnable man, how can the people here be so arrogant to obvious suffering? These soldiers needed a helping hand not a cold shoulder. Just as I was about to make my presence known a stick broke against the arrogant man's head, causing a torrent of hateful language to spew from his mouth, the source was still unknown to me and I looked around for the source of the strike and found the form of a small boy raising another stick above his head for another strike.

Before the stick could be utilized it fell from the boy's grip as a shadow darted around the corner and dragged the boy back down an alley way, intrigued, I moved to the other side of the roof to get a better view. The boy was being dragged down the alley by a girl, which he obviously wasn't pleased about, he should have been grateful though, as a few seconds later the man he had struck appeared in the mouth of the alley and directed his stream of hateful language towards his assailant.

I quietly followed the progress of the two other kids as they walked/were dragged down the alley and out towards the hill, where several middle-class families made their homes, my house had been further down than this, right next to the gate, in fact. However the Girl did not drag the boy up the hill, she instead threw him (staggeringly) against the wall at the end of the alley-way, I couldn't help but gasp quietly, the girl did not appear even nearly strong enough to pull off such a feat, but she had done it. The words that were exchanged between the two were way out of my ear-shot, but it was definite that they were heated, due to the red shade that the boy's face went, it almost made him look like a tomato.

Eventually the two of them moved away, towards the hill where I had originally thought they were heading, leaving me on my own again, as usual. I opted to retreat to the river-side, wanting the calming effect that water had on me. The journey there was spent with the images of the soldiers in my mind, I had always believed that I was going to be a soldier, reasoning that it was the only path left open to me, but now I was not so sure that I could handle it, sure: the years spent alone had hardened me to a point, but I doubted greatly that I had the resolve to get through the horrors that those men and women had to endure. On my way to the river I deposited my coat on the roof, reasoning that it was now too warm to wear it, I was about to move down from the wall when something…just made me stop, after a few moments contemplating I went back and retrieved the pocket watch from its bag and placed it in my pocket.

The remaining distance to the river was short, and I made it there relatively quickly using the roof-tops. I sat on the steps down to the river bed, leaning on the pavement above me with an idle arm, with my head nestled in my hand I looked out across the river, there were a few boats out, most were supply ships, taking some of the grain to the third wall to be consumed by the upper-classes. I watched the boatmen load on several bags of grain with mild interest, all of the bags required a lot of strain from even the strong men to lift, despite them doing similar things, if not the same thing, every day. Something made me smile a little as I watched the boat sink a little lower into the water with every bag added to it, if too many were added the small craft would sink, and while it would be sad, it would be a rather amusing oversight on the part of the boatmen.

I watched the workers go about their business for what must have been a few hours, by the time I returned to my senses the sun was half-way down its arch towards night-time. I remembered the pocket watch upon thinking of the time, it took a fair amount of effort to wrestle out of my tight pocket but eventually it came free and rested in my palm, it was a gold watch, or at least it was buffed to give that impression. Gold was mostly reserved for coinage these days, but maybe the watch had originated before the shortage called all craftsmen to stop using it. I couldn't help but marvel at the craftsmanship of the watch for a while, it was definitely valuable, any dealer with an eye worth seeing with could see the potential of such an item, it had blue patterns engraved in the clock-face and sported white knobs that adjusted the hands.

The most valuable thing for me, however, was the engraving on the back of it. It was a present from my parents, the day before they had…died. It had been my birthday, my eighth, and they had made a huge fuss over me, Mom had used our finest produce on the dinner, and Dad had gone out and got me this. I obviously had no idea at the time, but now know that the watch must have cost Dad several month's wages to buy, and so I kept it safe at all times, the engraving on the back often made my throat tight, but now, in front of the water, it had a grounding effect, it allowed me to focus on what was important. Mom and Dad would have wanted me to make the most out of life, regardless of whether they were around or not, in fact they had said that much a couple of times when they asked me what I wanted to be when I was older, and other things that parents made a habit of asking.

I had been so sucked into my own world that I hadn't noticed the three other children sit down near me on the steps, I was only drawn back in when I overheard them talking in raised voices.

"Mikasa! How dare you tell my parents that!" one of them shouted, a boy by the sounds, I didn't look in case they noticed me eaves dropping.

"Tell them what?" another voice, also male, asked, it was weird, listening to people but not looking at them.

"About his plan to join the Recon Corps" a third, female, voice joined the conversation, then realization dawned on me, the way the girl talked, she sounded like the kind of person that would throw someone into a wall to knock some sense into them. I finally risked a glance over and my suspicions were confirmed, it was the pair from earlier, plus one.

"Oh" the plus one said with the voice of someone who was putting the pieces together, "how did it go?"

"They didn't take it well" the first boy replied, the girl obviously hadn't thrown him against the wall hard enough, it was hardly difficult to fathom that the parents of a ten year-old boy would be slightly concerned that their son was planning to join what was currently considered a suicide squad.

"I figured" the plus one said, hugging his knees and staring down at..._wait…is that a book?_  
My curiosity was definitely burning now, what exactly had these kids been talking about before I started listening? Books were forbidden, I remembered Dad giving up all of his to the Military police when they came round to collect them after they were banned.

"Hey…" my head shot up towards the voice, and noticed that all three pairs of eyes were fixed on me. Then I realized that I was staring at the book on the floor, and that had probably gotten me noticed. It was the thrown-against-the-wall boy that had called me out, and he was practically on his feet by the time I had regained control of myself. "Are you listening to us?!" he yelled, the plus one pulled his friend back to the floor before he made a scene but they still looked at me as if I was some kind of spy. Working for the Garrison or something.

I stared at them, dumbstruck, how was I supposed to confront this situation, I hadn't come here to listen to people's conversations, after all, but there I was. This was probably the bad part of not talking to people for extended periods of time, I guessed it had made my social functions null-and-void.

"I…uhm" I stuttered over words, in confrontations I was always a little bad with words, always preferring to run away, I started when I found myself playing with my hair, it was too long, I needed to cut it, but the tail it was tied in look okay enough. "I couldn't help it…I guess" my stumbling obviously wasn't helping. The plus one, with the blond hair, had softened his expression slightly, and was squeezing the shoulder of his friend to stop him from glaring daggers at me.

"Don't worry" the blond one said, I really needed to stop jumping whenever someone spoke to me, they might have thought I was ill or something. "I'm sure you didn't mean anything bad by listening", I guess I kind of liked this guy, he was definitely more reasonable, and a lot less quick to judge, or act.

"I didn't" I blurted out, probably a little too suddenly, but they seemed to be calming down and didn't pick me up on it. At least the one that had been all riled up was calming down, maybe that was enough.

"I heard you guys talking about the recon corps" I said, a little quieter this time, trying to control my voice, the eyes of the haunted appeared in my mind's eye again, I wished I could have helped them in some way.

"What do you think?" the blond one asked, I jumped slightly, I hadn't expected direct questioning from someone I'd just met, maybe the blond kid was a nice person, he seemed open and friendly, at least.

"About joining?" I asked, upon two affirmative nods, one coming from the previously excited one, it surprised me, how he leaned on the blond one for confirmation that someone was okay to talk to, I was reluctant to speak my mind, but they had been friendly so far, barring the initial exchange.

"I always thought I'd join the army" I said, looking at the floor, for some reason I was suddenly embarrassed at the way my voice cracked, it was rarely used, I sometimes forgot how to form certain sounds. "And I've always wanted to see outside the walls, maybe I might join the Recon corps", I wasn't sure still, obviously, but I was saying these things to see whether I might have found a group to fit in with, at least for today.

"See Mikasa?!" the excitable, brown-haired boy exclaimed, pointing at me, "I'm not the only one!" I was still unsure of how to greet this situation, I was used to going unseen, one of those street-kids that people never spoke to.

"But", I had to say the other side of this, this boy was so riled up about it that he was missing the crucial part of the entire conversation as I had perceived it "I know that facing the difficulties of the outside would be difficult, you saw the Legion earlier, they were all hollow, they won't be the same people again" I said, I had to cast my eyes across the water to stop bad images implanting themselves in my head.

"How did you know we were there?" the Girl asked, it was the first time she had directed anything at me, but damn was she fast, she must have had her brain going at a million miles an hour.

"I watched them come in from the roof" I explained, shrugging, "I saw you hit the guy over the head" I said, looking at the gung-ho boy.

"He had it coming" he dismissed the memory of the man with a wave of the hand. Following this there was a brief moment of silence, I looked back over the river, calming my heart down a little from the racing pace it had set itself due to the idea of peer interaction.

"What's your name?" the Blond-haired kid asked, I started, looking at him with wide-eyes, I had no idea why they were being so open with me. "It's just that I've never seen you around before, you don't go to the school" he explained, offering a small smile.

"I…uhm", oh for goodness sakes, why was this so difficult, I know my own name. "Ollie" I said, a little abruptly, "sorry, it's just that I live alone, I'm not used to people talking to me", I guessed that this must be a school thing, playground interaction and all that probably made the kids that went more open to the idea of talking to other kids of a similar age.

"Oh" the Blond kid seemed a little embarrassed, "sorry, I didn't realize".

The silence was heavy following this, I remembered suddenly why I never talked to people, I always seemed to put a dampener on things, I looked back up at the three kids behind me, they were all in different positions of silence. The girl was staring out across the water, the excitable boy was throwing stones into the water, and the plus one was looking down at his book.

"It's crazy that people think these walls will protect us forever" the plus one said, seemingly out of nowhere, I assumed this was part of the conversation I missed while day-dreaming. "Even though they've kept us safe for a hundred years there's no guarantee that they won't be broken down today…" he trailed off. For some reason I actually laughed, causing all eyes to focus on me again, like I had some kind of plague, I shifted a little so I was facing the group face-on, there was no point talking to them sideways if they were so intent on including me…or at least one of them was.

"Sorry, it's just that what you said sounded ominous" I reasoned, it seemed the atmosphere as growing slightly less awkward, maybe it was some kind of playground complex.

"But it's true isn't it?" the excitable kid said, "the walls could be broken down at any time, and then we would all be like cattle to slaughter" it took all I had to not laugh again, the seriousness and the context of the statement did not permit it, but in another context it might have been comical, coming from the mouth of a ten-year-old.

"It is, I guess" I let him have it though, gazing into the sky, there were some geese flying around, making a small racket, "and you're right, if the walls were to fall it is likely that anyone in the way would stand no chance of escaping" the eyes of the plus one were cast down to the floor, something in me instantly regretted that sentence, I guess I had to dampen the mood, however the excitable one nodded eagerly.

"See!" he pointed at me again, he seemed to like doing that, maybe it was his way of making friends, "he understands!" The Girl simply huffed a little while the plus one offered a weak smile. I was about to make another observation, I was starting to get into the swing of this 'talking to peers' business again, when a huge bolt of lightning crashed into the ground, visible only above the buildings, it caused the ground to quake with its force. The entire group was thrown into the air, I landed a little painfully on my leg but shook it off, I hobbled a little as I made my way up the stairs to watch throngs of people flock to the gate.

"What was that?" the blond kid asked, holding onto his own leg and looking a little worse for wear.

"I don't know" the excitable one helped him up while the girl was calmly brushing herself down.

"Looked like lightning…" I observed, looking over the buildings at the clear skies that the bolt had originated from. The others seemed to notice the people moving to the gate and wordlessly took off towards it, I decided to follow along behind them, keeping a distance as I was pretty sure my presence was still a little way off accepted yet. But the Blond kid surprised me by hanging back a little, he offered another weak smile, it seemed like a specialty, and offered me a hand in a completely adult manner.

"I'm Armin" he said, with the same smile playing on his face, I took his hand briefly and shook it, maybe it was time I made some friends…

We rounded the last corner at the same time to see everyone looking up at the wall, some kind of stunned silence was prominent over the entire square, I followed their gaze up and couldn't help but gasp when I saw the huge hand planted on top of the wall.

"You're kidding" Armin muttered, his voice laced with a primal fear that I had once heard in my own voice. "That wall is fifty meters high!"

"It's them" the excitable one breathed out, his voice almost the complete opposite of his fellow's, "Titans" the word was spat with anger, something made me fearful of ever crossing this kid when he was angry. The Titan then seemed to decide it was a good time to reveal that it wasn't even standing at full height yet, its head became visible above the wall, it had no skin on it, I could see the muscles of its face contorting with some effort, whatever it was doing was hidden by the wall though.

Suddenly the gates exploded outwards, sending rubble and _people _flying in all directions, most of both categories hitting buildings while the former of the two flattened a few by-standers. The initial chaos was insane, people were running everywhere as their brains flooded with the panic-fueled desire to flee from the carnage created by the rubble. Then the titans came in.

Someone yelled from a balcony somewhere but I wasn't paying attention, all I could see was the most hideous expression emerging from the darkened shade of the destroyed gate, it was definitely a haunting expression.

I suddenly became aware that there was two people less next to me, I turned to my left to see only Armin, with his hand held out as if trying to stop someone, I turned my gaze forward again to see that the other two were gone, heading _towards a Titan_.

"Are they mad?" I breathed out, I had never seen a Titan in person before, but I knew from accounts that they were not a merciful creature. I looked back at Armin to see his hand still there, it was shaking badly and some part of me wanted to stop that but I didn't know what to do, a lack of human interaction made me really bad at being supportive I guess.

"It's over" his voice somehow managed to tremble more than his hand did, "Titans have invaded this town…", well maybe they had but I wasn't about to sit and let someone who I might be able to call a friend get eaten because he was paralyzed.

"Hey" I said, crouching to his level, I had almost no time, but I needed to do something constructive, "there's nothing we can do about that now, is there something we can do to help your friends?" Armin seemed to think for a moment, stuck in some kind of cycle in his own thoughts, then he got to his feet, shakily, I allowed him to steady himself on my shoulder.

"Yes" and as fast as the terror had set in, it was gone…just like that, replaced by determination, I allowed myself to think that I could get on pretty well with this guy. "We need to warn Hannes, and then we need to get out of here" I simply nodded to him and he started running _towards the Titans_. I was almost tempted to call him out on this but I avoided it, albeit with some trepidation, just before we entered the danger zone that I had mapped in my head, a zone that was ever expanding, we took a right towards the Garrison buildings, which were buzzing more than usual. I almost hesitated when I saw the two that had been chasing me the night before but pressed on, Armin caught a blond-haired man by the arm and yelled something at him that I missed over the din that the fleeing people were creating.

Then Armin was running back past me again, back towards the safety of the other gates, I followed on his heels in case he needed my help, because as determined as he was I doubted he would be able to lift anything heavier than a sack of potatoes. He checked over his shoulder briefly and we shared a nod, and so I followed him through the town towards the gates, just before we reached the end of the row of houses he stopped and opened a door into a house, after a brief moment of inner argument I followed, not shutting the door behind me, we needed a quick escape.

"Grandpa!" Armin was shouting, it came from the back of the house, I moved towards the voices and eventually found the two of them, the older man was putting various oddities in his pockets and Armin was doing the same. I felt the sudden urge to help, if I was going to be a friend to this person I needed to help him in his time of need.

"Is there…" I trailed off when they both looked at me, maybe I wasn't so courageous after-all, Armin looked at me in a way that spoke somehow, though, it made me finish the question. "Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked, the older man seemed to briefly appraise me before smiling a little.

"Upstairs" he motioned with his head, "there's a hat on the corner of my bed, would you mind fetching it? Can't go anywhere without it" his voice was kind, and his eyes were kinder, I simply nodded and ran up the stairs, two at a time. I found the hat without much trouble, it was a battered old thing, but I expected that it had sentimental value, I ran back down the stairs and handed it to the man, who promptly placed it on his head.

"Now, I expect we should be making ourselves scarce" he smiled a little at Armin and me and walked quickly out the house, there was a large crowd of people milling towards the exit, the old man seemed to ponder for a moment. "Hold hands so we don't separate" he said simply, I complied by grabbing Armin's hand and following them out into the streets.

The journey to the boats outside the town walls was fairly straight-forward, it was like swimming with a strong current, the crowd pushed us quickly through the gates and before my mind caught up we were getting into one of the boats and sitting about halfway along the deck, facing outwards towards the crowd. I sat next to Armin and his Grandfather, looking at my hands which were twining and untwining their fingers without me really telling them to, I was thankful that I had seen no one get eaten, because there were obviously people who had, it was in their eyes, like the Recon Corps members earlier.

"Young man" Armin's Grandfather suddenly addressed me, his kind gaze bore into my slightly wider than usual eyes, "you offered to help us in our hour of need, and yet I do not know your name" he smiled a little, I had a feeling it might have been brighter had the circumstances been fitting.

"Uhm…" I found myself tripping over my words again, I was just so…unused to interaction with nice people. Armin seemed to pick up on this, and came to my rescue.

"He's called Ollie, I only met him earlier" I nodded when his Grandfather turned a questioning eye in my direction.

"Hmm" he said, then looked at me again, it looked like he was trying to place me. If he managed to do it he never brought it up, because Armin was up on his knees trying to locate his friends.

"Armin, sit down" he suddenly sounded sad, or sadder, it was hard to tell with people I just met, I hoped it had nothing to do with me.

"But Eren and Mikasa aren't here yet" Armin replied, continuing to glance around.

"So that's their names" I said out-loud without really realizing, maybe I had interacted too much today.

"Oh, right. They never got round to saying did they?" Armin smiled sadly down at me.

"No" I turned around to look for myself, I wasn't sure how hard Armin was looking, because I spotted them straight away, "there look" I held my hand in front of Armin so he could see where I was pointing, he caught on instantly then.

"Oh" he uttered, then raised his hand to wave but then retracted it, "Eren…" assuming Eren was the boy I knew what he was referring to, his eyes were empty, wide and empty, but it was the disturbed unseeing look that gave me the chills.

"Damn…" I said, causing Armin to turn and look at me again, "they call it the thousand mile stare" I indicated Eren as he was pushed forwards onto the boat by the blond-haired Garrison soldier from earlier.

"I think I understand why" Armin muttered, almost too quietly for me to hear, there was no replying to it anyway, so it made little difference.

"Now isn't a good time to talk to them" Armin's grandfather said sadly, I wasn't even aware that he had turned around to look, he must be subtle.

"There _is_ no talking to them when they're like that" I said, Armin's grandfather nodded at me in agreement. Armin sat down again, his face ripe with worry, I didn't make any further points, and neither did Armin's grandfather, so I assumed that it was the right thing to do.

Behind me I could hear the desperate pleas of the people who had been too late to get onto the boat, someone was asking that they take her children but even she was stone-walled, it made me feel scandalous, I had nothing of worth, I had no one to look out for me, and yet I was here, and they were not, it made me feel sick. The boats then began to pull off, I even felt slightly relieved to be leaving the human pleas behind me.

Suddenly I felt two sets of nails dig into my back, I yelped like a wounded animal and jumped out of my seat only to see a pair of hands disappear over the edge, someone had tried to jump…and they hadn't made it. I imagined that I couldn't hear their screams as the boat passed over them, the bank was sloped, so they had rolled down into the pit at the bottom, I couldn't blank them out though, I could almost feel the nightmares coming.

The screams were then drowned out by a huge booming sound, everyone on the boat craned their necks to see what had happened, but they were rewarded by the sight of a dust-cloud hiding whatever it was from view. I kept looking, trying to make out what it was…but I wish I hadn't. A titan was standing on _this side of the wall_, with steam coming out of its nose. But behind it was the most scary sight, there was a huge hole in the wall…the titans had breached wall Maria…we had lost the fight before we had even begun it. I heard Armin's grandfather utter some kind of oath under his breath, maybe a prayer, whatever it was I wish I could have shared in his sentiment.

My attention then turned back into the boat, the sight of humanity's failure was making me even more sick, but then the sight that greeted my eyes upon turning them back into the boat wasn't much more uplifting. Eren was looking at me, but not at me, he was staring straight through me, then he looked down at his hands, which were clenching and unclenching almost mechanically. It was when the tears started falling that he looked back up, and my earlier suspicions were confirmed, I really didn't want to get in the way of this guy when he was angry. When he made his way to the side of the boat I simply stepped aside, if he needed to vent into the river-bed then I wasn't going to stop him, Armin shot me a look that said something like 'be ready', I assumed he thought Eren was going to throw himself over the side.

"I'm going to kill them all" Eren uttered, he spat every word, and his eyes actually scared me, that was the first time I had been scared of a human being since…well…for a long time.

"Eren?" Armin said, making the mistake of getting a little too close, this mistake caused Eren to actually shove him backwards, I placed a hand against Armin's back to stop him from falling over, it was practically all I could do. I wouldn't consider me and Eren 'friends' yet, so this was a job for people who actually were on that level. Armin mouthed 'thanks' at me before regaining his own balance and returning his full attention to Eren.

"Not a single one of them will be left" Eren's anger seemed to come off him like some sort of aura, he was practically glowing. Armin seemed to miss this fact, however,

"Eren…" he would have continued had I not nudged him slightly, I may not have been around people enough recently to notice subtle signs, but what Eren was not being right now was subtle.

"You should leave him be for a while" I whispered into Armin's ear, so that Eren and Mikasa couldn't hear me. "There's nothing you or anyone can do right now, wait until we get off the boat" I said, he seemed to understand, and nodded. So we simply stood and watched Eren for the entirety of the journey, simply to make sure he didn't go on a rampage or something similar.


End file.
